Giya Makondo-Wills

FOTODOK x BredaPhoto

With Grounding – Stories of Migration, FOTODOK ✕ BredaPhoto Festival present works by seven artists that tell stories of first generation migration – those who came to the Netherlands by choice or by circumstance. These works reflect processes of diasporic homemaking and identity formation: both ever-evolving pursuits for the uprooted. Split into parts, or caught between past and present, the urge to define a new sense of home – and a new sense of self – becomes stronger than ever.

Participating artists: Giya Makondo-Wills, Hanna Hrabarska, Kevin Osepa, Marwan Magroun, Nael Quraishi, Sebastian Koudijzer & Tyler Koudijzer, Thana Faroq

Curated by Daria Tuminas

This is a story about a home – for the new, and for those who have been here far longer. From the perspective of a foreigner, it attempts to understand a contested space with a difficult history, exploring feelings that are unique to the immigrant experience: feelings of a place that you are yet to understand fully. Car horns mark the wedding parade. The humming of motorbikes and the pop of an exhaust on a car. The loud crack in the night from a firework explosion, and the laughter that fills the smoke after the act. Hot sticky days with the smell of marinated meat over charcoal. Macheted watermelon echoes the evening sunset, and sunflower seeds paint the streets like glitter.

Utrecht’s Kanaleneiland is a place first built for white natives in a post-war utopia. Now, it’s where the future of the country is born and raised. Where flags from foreign lands are flown with pride.

Exploring the story of Kanaleneiland, where she settled in late 2020, Giya Makondo-Wills invites the audience to consider what constitutes a good immigrant. How does society continue to shape racial and socio-economic segregation? How does a country’s history contribute to the social tensions that define the current political climate? A Neighbourhood approaches these questions by addressing images and text from a neighbourhood WhatsApp chat, an integration exam questionnaire, and the artist’s own responses to the system.